Archive for the ‘Sports Marketing’ tag

The NHL CentennialFanArena, the league’s in-market activation around its 100th season, has proved to be an effective fan engagement tool for both the league and teams, leading to the hope of doing something nationally on a smaller scale in future years.

Launched Jan. 1 in Toronto at the Centennial Classic, the traveling tour has stopped in 16 team cities thus far, logging more than 33,000 miles. More than 200,000 fans have attended, according to the NHL. It will visit the remaining teams by the end of this year, as well as the league’s tentpole events, including the draft and outdoor games.

“Our goal was to figure out how we were going to reach out and touch fans during the centennial year, and we’ve seen how each of these cities have embraced it,” said Steve Mayer, NHL executive vice president and chief content officer. “We knew we were producing a lot of good content during the centennial, and wanted to make it as far-reaching as possible, even to the point where it was in your backyard.”

The fanarena, which consists of two 53-foot trucks and was created alongside MKTG and Palmer Audio, includes several elements for fans such as a ball hockey rink, a virtual reality Zamboni experience and a 1,000-square-foot museum display of memorabilia, photos and interactive displays.

Designed to provide fans with a historical look at the sport along with interactive games, the tour has built upon what many teams have begun doing across the league.

For example, the Arizona Coyotes launched their own mobile tour event in December 2015 that included an interactive slap shot game and player features. It travels to festivals, schools and other events around its metro area.

When the league’s truck tour was scheduled to come to the city for two days in early January, it secured a spot at a popular outdoor shopping center where it also held a viewing party for an away game. More than 14,000 people attended in Tempe, with the Coyotes able to sell “numerous” flex packs, mini-packs and single-game tickets, said Rich Nairn, executive vice president of communications and broadcasting.

While the Nashville Predators have an outdoor activation in a plaza outside their stadium for most home games, the chance to bring elements of hockey history to the city as part of the NHL tour was key for a city that has been in the league for fewer than 20 years.

“For many fans in markets like Nashville, they may never get to the Hockey Hall of Fame [in Toronto],” said Gerry Helper, Predators senior vice president and senior adviser. “To be able to bring even a small versionof something that features the game’s traditions, its changes and history really helps to grow the appreciationof the sport, the league and our team here.”

The NHL has nine of its sponsors — including Bridgestone, Dunkin’ Donuts and SAP — supporting the tour, and has encouraged teams to have their own sponsors activate alongside the events. In Nashville, Dunkin’ is also a local sponsor and handed out free coffee and doughnuts, and the Tennessee Lottery also activated alongside the two-day event. Mayer said the league is working with all the teams along the tour to optimize the stop as best as they can, both for sponsors and fans.

Mayer said based off the feedback he has received during the planning of the truck tour, he expects all the league’s teams to plan their own in-market tours. He said the league is also aiming to be involved as well, even if it’s just ensuring the most popular element of the current tour is there — the Stanley Cup.

“We’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to do that, but it’s really opened up our eyes in a great way,” Mayer said. One of the factors will be on how much money the league allocates to those efforts.

The NHL declined to comment on the cost of the truck tour. The tour is free to all fans.

SOURCE: By Ian Thomas, Staff Writer Published in SportsBusiness Journal on May 15, 2017

Dentsu Aegis Network today announced that Sean O’Brien, CEO of Carat Asia-Pacific, will become CEO of the network’s experiential marketing unit MKTG and out-of-home specialist agency Posterscope in APAC. His position at Carat will be taken over by Kevin Walsh, previously managing director Carat APAC.

O’Brien spent six years as Carat CEO, in which time he tripled the size of the business. He has twice won Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Agency Head of the Year. In his new roles, he will oversee Posterscope’s digitisation across the region and the launch of “Liveposter”, the firm’s dynamic digital out-of-home asset that allows clients to change their OOH messaging throughout the day.

For MKTG, O’Brien is responsible for boosting its presence across APAC, with a particular focus on growth in China, followed by Japan and Korea. O’Brien said it has been “a privilege” to work as Carat CEO and that the business “is in great hands with Kevin”.

“MKTG and Posterscope are focused on how we communicate with people outside the home,” he told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “Liveposter gives us a competitive advantage in the space. For MKTG, APAC is the fastest growing opportunity around the world. We want to increase our ownership of assets in sport, music and entertainment, and develop our experiential work.”

Walsh has more than 20 years’ industry experience, having previously been with iProspect before moving to Carat as chief digital officer for APAC. He was promoted to managing director last year. “I’m picking up the reins at a very good time,” he told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

“Under Sean, Carat has seen tremendous growth and momentum, and there’s nothing like growth and momentum to attract new business and the very best talent.” Walsh added that as Carat CEO, he will continue using data to drive more value for clients from media, creating engaging content, and developing the agency’s e-commerce capabilities.

Nick Waters, DAN APAC CEO, said: “Sean will now focus on the development of two agencies with outstanding growth opportunities in Asia Pacific – MKTG and Posterscope. Kevin’s promotion represents the smooth execution of the Carat leadership succession plan.” Source: Campaign Asia-Pacific

For the past month, the San Francisco office has been working with Adopt a Family as part of our annual winter corporate social responsibility event. Adopt a Family is a non-profit organization that pairs families in need with donors (like us!) and the donors follow a wishlist and shop for holiday gifts for the families.

We received two families to support so we split the West Coast team (this included everyone in LA and our gals currently working in NY) up. We arranged as a little friendly competition and the teams signed up for items and shopped. Earlier this week, we gathered all of the gifts in San Fran and spent much of the day gift wrapping and getting everything ready to hand over to these amazing families. Take a look!

Dentsu has acquired the Olympic media rights to the 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024 Olympic Games for 22 Asian countries, the Tokyo-based ad-marketing holding company confirmed this week. The rights acquired cover all media platforms including TV, radio and the Internet.

The countries include Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Thailand and others. Earlier, the company acquired similar rights for the same countries to the upcoming Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Typically after acquiring rights, Dentsu resells them to local broadcasters with packages that also include advertising sponsors.

In addition to the Olympics, Dentsu has made other recent forays into the sports arena. In May it agreed to acquire a one-third stake in Laguna Hills, CA-based sports agency Athletes First for $16.5 million.

It also controls both MKTG and Team Epic (via Dentsu Aegis Network), which specialize in sports sponsorships and event marketing for clients including Nike, IBM and FedEx.

Earlier this year, Dentsu was selected as the agency of record for the Tokyo Summer Olympics (2020) and Paralympic Games.

The 2018 Winter Games are set for PyeongChang, Republic of Korea. Sites for the 2022 Winter Games and 2024 Summer Olympics are yet to be determined. Earlier this week the city of Boston withdrew its bid for the 2024 games after organizers determined that a majority of residents were not willing to support the effort.